Palermo, Most Beautiful and Defeated

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents v
3. Acknowledgments ix
4. Maps x
5. Introduction: Vincenzo Consolo and His Mediterranean Paradigm 1
6. Part One. Odysseus’s Journey: War and Exile
7. Conversation between Vincenzo Consolo and Mario Nicolao 51
8. Olive and Wild Olive 77
9. The Ruin of Syracuse 81
10. Algiers: Tradition and New Cultures; Those ‘Parabolic Dishers’ Who Dream of Italy 93
11. But Is This Sarajevo or Assisi? 97
12. The International Parliament of Writers: Journey to Israel/Palestine 104
13. Report of Basilio Archita 110
14. Men in the Sun 117
15. Diary of Two Journeys to America 121
16. Part Two. Sicilian Travels: Land, Cities, and Sea
17. People and Land of Sulphur 129
18. For a Bit of Grass on the Edge of the Feudal Estate 153
19. Tuna Fishing 159
20. Views of the Strait of Messina 188
21. The Eruption of Mount Etna 210
22. The Rebirth of the Val di Noto 214
23. Part Three. Mediterranean Crossroads
24. Sicily and Arab Culture 227
25. Ibn Jubayr 233
26. Palermo, Most Beautiful and Defeated 237
27. The Bridge over the Channel of Sicily 241
28. Porta Venezia 246
29. Part Four. Writing as Poetic Memory
30. A Day Like Any Other 253
31. For a Metric of Memory 263
32. The Languages of the Forest 271
33. The Disappearance of the Fireflies 277
34. The Smile, Twenty Years Later 285
35. Notes on Sources of the Text 293
36. Selected Bibliography of Vincenzo Consolo’s Works 295
37. Selected Critical Bibliography 303
38. Contributors 307